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Confiscation, from the Latin
confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the
treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government
or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, or of any
seizure of property without adequate compensation.

Contents

Scope and
history

As a punishment, it differs from a fine in that it is not primarily meant
to match the crime but rather reattributes the criminal's
ill-gotten spoils (often as a complement to the actual punishment
for the crime itself; still common with various kinds of contraband, such as
protected living organisms) to the community or even aims to rob
them of their socio-economic status, in the extreme case reducing
them to utter poverty, or if he is condemned to death even denies
them inheritance to the legal heirs, thus punishing the entire
bloodline (in the primitive logic of the blood feud). Meanwhile
limited confiscation is often in function of the crime, the
rationale being that the criminal must be denied the fruits of
their fault, while the crime itself is rather punished in some
other, independent way, such as physical
punishments or even a concurring fine.

Such rich prizes often proved too much temptation for the
authorities to refrain from abuse out of greed, especially when
taxation was relatively low-yielding, not permanent (often
requiring assent from estates etc. at a political cost) and aroused
far more resistance than 'making criminals pay'.

Often, police will auction confiscated items, and the profits will
often go to charities. Theoretically, it is
possible for owners to buy back confiscated items.

In airports, potentially
dangerous items (such as hazardous chemicals, weapons, and sharp
objects) are usually confiscated at inspections. Other items, such
as certain food, may also be confiscated, depending on importation
laws. Depending on the nature of the items, some may be returned at
the end of the flight, while most are discarded or auctioned off.
However, customs officers have a disreputable reputation,
exercising arbitrary power. The musical comedian Anna Russell had an
Irish harp confiscated by the U.S. Customs
Service.

Originally, in Roman law, it was the seizure and transfer of
private property to the fiscus by the emperor; hence the
appropriation, under legal authority, of private property to the
state.

In modern, e.g. English law, the term embraces forfeiture in
the case of goods, and escheat in the case of lands, for crime or in
default of heirs (see also Eminent Domain).
Goods may also be confiscated by the state for breaches of statutes
relating to customs, excise or explosives.

In the United States among the "war measures" during the American
Civil War, acts were passed in 1861 and 1862 confiscating,
respectively, property used for "insurrectionary purposes" and the
property generally of those engaged in rebellion.

Modern
trends

There was from the late 1980s onwards a resurgence of interest
in confiscation as crime prevention tool, which went hand in hand
with the interest in the criminalization of money
laundering. A number of international instruments, starting
with the 1988 Vienna Convention, have strongly suggested the
enactment of legal provisions enabling confiscation of proceeds of
crime. The 40 recommendations of the FATF have also stated its importance as a
crime prevention tool.

A further trend has been the reversal of the burden of proof for
the purpose of facilitating confiscation.